blauboy’s posthaven

So this Whitsun break we travelled to a European country, which hoisted four different banners within the last 100 years (Hungarian-Austrian, Italian, German, Yugoslawian) before it finally, just 25 years ago, became Slovenia. The "green heart of Europe" comes up with alpine mountains (Karavankas), sea (Adriatic Coast), downs, woodlands and karst. All within just barely 7830 square miles!

Our first destination: the most impressive cave of Postojna - 9 miles (24 km) of underground passages, galleries and halls, a tourist attractions for more than 200 years now, seen by 36 million visitors and the only cave with an underground train. So exciting, so breathtaking!

Dear Saint Peter, we need to talk. Thank you for that perfect winter day with cold, snow and glory sunshine - but didn't you check the calendars? Are you drunk?! It's the 27th of April! Springtime! Flowers are blooming, birds are singing, love is rising. People need to wear t-shirts. Not gloves.
Please, Saint Peter, have some fresh coffee, get sober again and revice your error.
With anticipatory thanks, yours sincerely - us.

Not only that we had run out of our favourite wine (pinot gris, "Grauburgunder"). We also needed sun after a long dismal winter - needed it badly! So we followed the invitation of Sandra and Karl and drove back to Leutschach in Southern Austria for the Easter holidays to witness the Styrian style of celebrating Jesus' resurrection. But besides Easter bonfire, egg dyeing, consecreation of groceries ("Gott, segne die Kräuter und den Kren!" - not really translatable), lots of hiking, fantastic vistas and excellent wine tasting: above all we experienced the warmth and hospitality of our hosts, who let us forget our everyday solicitudes. Thank you so much, Sandra and Karl, Irene, Maria, Sophie, Hanna and Katja of the Pronegg-Kristeindl winery!

Near Astrikas, district of Kolymvari in western Crete, the Dimitriadis family renovated the old olive mill of their family and specialized on organic products under the name of Biolea. The mill, amidst a beautiful landscape, usually is open to the public. Visitors are given a free guided tour and learn about the production path for organic olive oil - starting from receiving the olives, washing, deleafing and weighing them up to the actually milling, malaxing, olive paste loading, cold pressing all the way to the natural separation of oily water and olive oil and the final olive oil receiving and bottling.
By the way: The olive pomace (German: "Trester") is dried and used for heating in the winter. Simply bio.

Light, forest and snow were the features of the magical winter night of the Swabian Alb Biosphere Reserve in Münsingen, we attended. With relish we ate barbecued buffalo meat, took part in a night walk in the woods and built up a luminescent village out of candles on a wintery snowy forest glade.

Not too far from our front door - actually just ten kilometers away - there's a private museum in a new built barn, called the "Kutschen Wagen Museum" in the small village of Berghülen-Bühlenhausen. The entrance fee is three Euros for adults, the collection of carriages is... comprehensible (but lovely), and the pies, they offer in their small cafe, are excellent! A perfect destination for the entire family for a quick after-christmas-trip!

Our last city tour for this year led us - back to Chania on Crete again! We stayed in the heart of the city, met good old (and young) friends, enjoyed the new cosy restaurants in Chatzimichali Daliani Street, got sunburned in the warm November sun and collected shells and stones at the abandonded beaches of the "Gold Coast" between Chania's Nea Chora and Platanias.

An abandonded property near the heart of the city. A broken fence. Ruins, waste, dog shit. And the notion of how gorgious this decaying palace back then must have been - and how beautiful it could be again, with some effort, little time and a few million Euros...

The lost estate at Sotiriou Krokida 80 (see last pictures) in Chania once was built on top of a hill, with sea view and overlooking the entire city. That was presumably a long, long time ago; the structure of the walls shows, that they originally were made out of of stones, not bricks. Today the mansion it surrounded by newer and higher buildings. But still, though all the decay, it's beauteous architecture shines through. Look at the paintings at the ceilings, the impressive curved entrance staircase, the former pond in front of the house. You don't need lots of fantasy to see the old palace's beauty again!

Golden October in southern Germany! This year, the most arid year in meteorological history, it seems the colours of the autumn leafs are more vivid and motley than in previous years. Although their discoloration started two weeks earlier than usual.

Impressions from our family trip to Kürnbach/Bad Schussenried in the Swabian-Bavarian Allgau region, where we visited the museum of local history Oberschwäbisches Museumsdorf.